PRAGOTI

In the recently concluded BMC elections, both the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and Samajwadi Party (SP) were biggest gainers, compared to older parties such as Shiv Sena and Congress. What does it signify for Mumbai and its politics? 

Pragoti provides links to the debate on the past and future of Communist movement in India running on the pages of Caravan magazine. 

As concerned leftists, we must defend important national-bourgeois thinkers of modern persuasion. When I see Anna Hazare being transformed into Gandhi, I feel the need to rescue Gandhi.

Most of the facts about the murder of Niyamat Ansari are available in media and the vicious propaganda against Niyamat and others has been effectively countered by now. This note attempts to ask the more fundamental question about NREGA, civil society and the Maoists by going deeper into the problem of acute violence over NREGA in states like Jharkhand.

It is time to reinforce our belief in the core secular ideas of modernity and socialism. This is what should be said loudly after Babri judgment, not going back but moving forward.

It is surprising that the NAC-recommended press release does not reflect any spirit of the strong social-political action behind the mobilisations around the food security issue since last few years. More distressing is to hear such discussions when the country has been witnessing high inflation fuelled by higher levels of food inflation. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the fears of the proposed FSA turning into a sham and, in turn, only used as a rhetorical cover against the opposition has almost come true.

Unarguably, Israeli regime is a blood-thirsty, irrational and illegal regime. Humanity stands offended by the very existence of this Israeli establishment.

A blogpost to comprehend the politics behind Mahatma Gandhi NREGA-II and what it entails for the goal of universal employment guarantee in India.

A district and sessions court in Patna has finally pronounced a verdict in the infamous Laxmanpur- Bathe carnage almost thirteen years after 58 Dalits (including 27 women and 10 children) were brutally killed by the Ranvir Sena (the now-almost-defunct caste army belonging to Bhumihar landlords) on December 1, 1997. While giving death sentence for 16 convicts and life imprisonment and Rs. 50,000 fine for 10 others, the court also noted that the massacre was a ‘stigma on civil society and rarest of rare cases of brutality’.

In the general elections 2009, BJP had a distinct advantage in Jharkhand. The party won 8 out of total 14 Lok Sabha seats and planned to win a clear majority in the state assembly elections. The assembly results, however, came out to be a rude and shocking retreat for the BJP that too when circumstances absolutely favoured it. And for insiders, this turnaround is neither unexpected nor undesired.